It’s not that Auburn’s plans for some kind of in-town transit system is totally nuts. There’s something to be said for having a service to transport the elderly or infirm to see a doctor, pick up a prescription or do routine shopping. But the town’s transit plan adopted by the city council appears to be a vast overreaching both financially and culturally.

The idea for a city transit system came from the town’s recent approval of a new apartment complex. On paper, city officials projected that the town would make nearly $10,000 in profit from a transit system the first year to serve those apartments and other areas of the town.

To which anyone who is familiar with how these things usually work out would have to say, “Nuts!” There is no way the town will make a profit on this system. It will be lucky if it doesn’t lose $25,000 or $30,000 per year.

Like so many new government programs, officials behind this idea put on rose-colored glasses when they did their budget. The assumptions in the transit budget are so pie-in-the-sky one has to wonder if it was drafted in a bar on the back of a napkin after someone had a few too many adult beverages.

First, let’s take the assumption that someone will be willing to pay $1 per trip to ride from their Auburn apartment or home two or three miles to a store; that’s $2 for a round-trip. For just $2.25, one can buy a subway ticket in Manhattan and ride from one end of the island to the other.

Second, the city’s transit budget assumes that six people will ride the system each of 14 daily trips for a total of 84 people riding each day. Maybe one or two people per trip, but not six. There is no way to know, of course, until it gets going; and anyway, if you’re only going to have six people at a time, why do you need a bus? Wouldn’t a minivan do just as well?

Third, in operating the system Monday thru Friday 8-5, the system will limit itself to very little demand. By ignoring weekend and evening needs, the system won’t be full service. But those inclined to use a bus don’t limit their need to just 8-5 on weekdays.

Fourth, the transit budget assumes it will sell $10,000 in advertising to local businesses for placards inside and outside the bus. Really? To whom? Have those people tried to sell advertising in the current economy?

In addition to those difficult financial realities, Auburn is bumping up against a cultural reality: People in suburban communities don’t ride public transit very much in the South. Because of the way growth happens in this area, cars are the preferred means of transportation for a vast majority of people. It’s impossible to change that dynamic. A town can offer transit, but it can’t make people ride.

Of course, Auburn officials have already laid out their fallback provision should their financial projections not pan out. The city says the new apartment complex will bring in enough tax money and tap fees to pay for the transit program, so that in the long run it won’t cost more money.

But it will. The new apartment complex isn’t just a financial cow for the town. It will create additional costs to Auburn in the demand for public services, recreation, police, etc.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be too surprising that Auburn’s financial projections for this project are so unrealistic. For the last four years, Auburn has been spending more money than it takes in each year. To make up the shortfall, the city has been dipping into its reserves.

Four years ago, the town had $3.5 million in reserves; now that stands at $1.3 million. Financial acumen is not Auburn’s strongest hand. At some point, the well of reserves will run dry; then what?

One gets the feeling that in doing this transit program, Auburn officials are straining for the town to become something it is not — a big town.

Straddling both Barrow and Gwinnett counties, Auburn has come more and more to identify itself with the much larger Gwinnett. Town officials have hitched their political fortunes to Gwinnett’s coattails because they want Auburn to be more than just a small, suburban community.

But running with the big dogs doesn’t come cheap and Auburn’s penchant for spending money on questionable projects to keep up with its more affluent neighbors is troubling. It’s as if community leaders have an inferiority complex that they seek to alleviate by the spending of tax dollars to bolster their own sense of importance: “Look at us, we have transit, we’re big time now!”

And perhaps some Auburn officials have higher political ambitions for which they are building a resume. Creating a new transit system looks good on paper for a political resume, even if it proves to be a financial boondoggle.

The Auburn transit program is supposed to be launched for a one-year trial and then re-evaluated. But very few public projects such as this ever die once they are born. Public officials are loath to ever admit they were wrong, or that they made a mistake. It’s impossible to imagine that one year from now, Auburn leaders would ever, under any circumstances, admit this project didn’t work. Instead, they will paper over the financial realities and keep going, the truth be damned. It happens in every government every day in every state; government programs never die, but continue to live on as tax-sucking zombies.

Maybe Auburn’s new transit program will work out and provide something people in the community will support and it will be low-cost to operate. If so, it will be the exception to the rule of public transit in this area.

But those who are cynics about government waste would have to conclude that Auburn’s transit dream is little more than a solution in search of a problem and is designed not to serve the public so much as it is to enhance the political aspirations of its proponents.

Mike Buffington is co-publisher of the Barrow Journal. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.

Corporations and government have a lot in common. Well-intentioned projects fly out of control as people at all levels bite off a piece of it.

And no one's willing to risk their career just to admit that the program is failing and needs to be cut or fixed.

Sometimes it works out. For example: Microsoft eventually figured out how to make a search engine people wanted to use, and Google almost figured out social networking, both after many failed attempts.

Sometimes governments and corporations do something right despite the failings inherent to large organizations. This transit thing, unfortunately, is probably doomed from the start.

Having seen the birth and demise of C-Tran in Clayton County, I have first hand knowledge and plenty of supporting evidence that this WILL NOT work.

C-Tran started with 2 routes. Both routes went into communities that are historically avid supporters and users of pulbic transit. Their average ridership was 6 per trip. The bus capacity was 30.

By the time Clayton County pulled the plug, the transit system was charging $3.50 per trip. Over the 8 years of operation, the system cost the county $10 million a year and only generated $2.5 million in revenues, giving it a loss of roughly $77.5 million over it's 8 years.

The biggest falacy in Auburn's thinking that the new apartment complex will generate tax revenue and ridership is simple. If you're banking on ridership out of an apartment complex, you need to make it Section 8 housing. This will cause you to lose your tax revenues and also increase your need for Emergency Services to that area. If you're banking on the tax revenue, then the people who will pay the fees for the rent will not be the type that will use public transit. You can have one or the other, having both in the same complex will only last one lease cycle.

Selling advertising at $10,000 a pop? What business would pay that outrageous fee? Why pay that to have an 8 x 10 picture of your flyer on a bus, when I can pay less than that and have more exposure by putting the same ad in a newspaper? Not to mention paying someone minimum wage to stand on a street corner twirling a sign? There are far better avenues of advertising available than a bus that will give me no exposure.

You may be right ..but you never know.When Walt Disney came up with opening a family theme park in the middle of the Florida swamp every one thought he was crazy and it was doom .Now look at Walt Disney crazy idea..,I think is crazy ,over the top idea for a small town.But sometimes you be amaze what crazy can do..I do wish the best for City of Auburn and maybe I will try this trolly to give it a chance.

Disney had already proved that a Disney them park would work when he built Disneyland in California in the 1960s. Disneyworld merely represented bigger & better in a similar sunny environment. Also Disney had credentials as a successful visionary with a string of animated feature motion pictures to his credit and Academy Award-winning short subjects. So, Disneyworld wasn't something throw together by someone with no experience.
Therefore, your analogy is ill-considered and invalid.

I thought this was an APRIL FOOL'S JOKE, this was REAL??? Well, It is a Joke, just on the Auburn Citizens, aka Taxpayers... If it CAN FULLY SUPPORT ITSELF, then So beit, BUT I would GIVE IT SIX(6)MONTHS TOP.

It will be a just a distant memory BUT current Addition to your TAXES.

No one really showed up to complain about the transit idea..Last open council meeting 3 people came and voiced their thoughts.If more Auburn citizen would have gone to the open meetings maybe the transit idea would not have happen..The mayor and council members are very fair and they do care about the city and what the citizen thinks..Instead of 3 ,maybe at least 25 would have gotten some kind of respond.

#5.1
Duh, they work, this is the Freeloader Express
on
06/18/12 at 07:35 PM
[Reply]

There are Not many Jobs in Auburn, its a bedroom community, all the people were still stuck in traffic coming from their Jobs in Gwinnett and elsewhere...

Maybe they should have picked up the high as a kite woman who wreaked of a sweet smell buying TEN energy drinks at Chevron on Kilcrease last night, then hurrying & turning left into the industrial park...hind sight is 20/20 & I should have called BCSD on her

I see the ANT bus trolling the WM parking lot quite often and most often empty. Silly idea. Auburn seems to have a lot of money to waste. They are always doing some to improve the "town" and those things aren't cheap.

Add Comment

Name

Email

Homepage

In reply to

Comment

E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To leave a comment you must approve it via e-mail, which will be sent to your address after submission.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above: